“It would feel better if I didn’t have to beat my buddy out there and it was someone else,” Querrey said of his Davis Cup partner. “But it’s still exciting. He’s got the biggest serve in the game so it can be frustrating at times. But you just have to not let it bother you when you get aced and just walk to the other side to be ready for the next point. It’s a game of inches, as they say, and on match point he missed that forehand by a couple of inches.”

“I don’t think I’ve played that well since San Jose (February),” Blake said. “I really felt like my old self out there, it’s the first time in a long time. Even if I don’t win another match here I’ll still feel good about my clay game. But I’m not ready to stop, I would really like to win this tournament.”

If Simon can get past American Robert Kendrick in his opener, he is looking at a possible second-round match up with wildcard and former French Open winner Gaston Gaudio. Russian Nikolay Davydenko, if he advances to the second round, is looking at a potential match-up with unseeded former No. 1 and former French Open winner Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain.